Organisers were confident of a 40,000 sell-out, but the ground was still half empty when the teams took to the field. It gradually filled up to about 95 per cent capacity as the first half wore on, but most of those supporters were clad in blue.

Chelsea's marketing department was out in force, handing out free flags to anyone who filled in a competition card with their personal details, swelling the Asia database of potential customers.

Hong Kong and Beijing Chelsea Supporters Clubs had their banners out, as did the 'Mongolian True Blues', but the furthest travelled - if we can judge from their flag alone - was surely the owner of the 'Chelsea Dorset' Union flag.

Neither side did much to get the atmosphere buzzing, but with the temperature still in the 30s and humidity levels far beyond anything the English-based players are used to, it was unsurprising most of the game was played little above walking pace.

Mauro Formica was first to lift the locals from thoughts of Chelsea v Kitchee when he drilled a shot from 18 yards, but Villa's new goalkeeper, Shay Given, was perfectly placed to parry. Argentinian Formica didn't play last season after a move from Newell's Old Boys, but he was Blackburn's best creative outlet.

Stephen Warnock had Villa's best first-half chance, connecting at the back post with a wickedly flighted cross from impressive young Scot Bannan, but Gael Givet hacked clear.

That was about it for goalmouth incident, but James Collins and Warnock showed they were taking the pre-season warm-up seriously, both throwing themselves in front of a Dunn shot to leave the Blackburn midfielder in a heap, wondering about the meaning of 'friendly'.

Bannan was perhaps the pick of Villa's players and it was another superb cross that finally gave the crowd something to cheer, picking out Bent to break the deadlock.

'All goals are good goals. It's always nice to score even in friendlies, but the main thing is we're into the final,' said Bent. 'It was a great ball from Barry. He's got that in his locker and it was great to stick a toe out and get it.'

Not to be outdone, man-mountain centre-half Chris Samba went on a barnstorming run from defence, laying the ball off to Brett Emerton at the right-hand edge of the area. His delicately curled shot was just tipped away by a full-stretch Given.

Villa made the usual raft of substitutions - former stars of the Hong Kong Soccer Sevens, Marc Albrighton and Nathan Delfouneso, were lively after coming on - but Rovers seemed determined to make most of their team sweat for 90 minutes.

The biggest cheer was left for stoppage time, when a mini-brawl threatened to break out for no apparent reason on the halfway line, but that too quickly fizzled out.

'Because they're Barclays Premier League teams, there's a little bit of an edge and there were a few meaty tackles and a wee tete-a-tete at the end. Handbags at dawn,' said Villa's new manager Alex McLeish. 'But I was pleased with the performance, fans might wonder why it wasn't played at a faster pace, but believe me, playing in that heat and humidity is extremely difficult.'

9

Aston Villa finished a disappointing ninth in the Premier League last season, while Blackburn were 15th